Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

This week, I have a number of items on search engines that may interest you:

Via Garrett Eastman’s Library News & Notes, several articles on Wolfram|Alpha, which I mentioned last week.

• Impressive: The Wolfram Alpha “Fact Engine”
  http://searchengineland.com/wolfram-alpha-fact-engine-18431
  (Source: Pandia Search World)
• See also: Ask Alpha: Quizzing the world’s first answer engine
  http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227075.600-ask-alpha-quizzing-the-worlds-first-answer-engine.html
  (Source: Science in the News)
• See also: Wolfram Alpha and Google Face Off
  http://www.technologyreview.com/web/22585/
• See also: Wolfram Alpha vs. Google: Answers to Your Queries
  http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/23495/
  (Source: dweinberger)
• Wolfram Alpha vs. Google = Power vs. Simplicity?
  http://ow.ly/5N9N
• See also: Little search engines that could
  http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/05/07/little-search-engines-that-could/

It’s my understand that Wolfram|Alpha will launch this coming Monday, 18 May.

I don’t think Wolfram|Alpha will be a “Google killer.”  The data it collects and parses is somewhat different from the majority of Google searches.  My guess is that it will become a very useful niche search engine, to be used in conjunction with Google.

In other search engine news:

• Google announces that is offering “smarter” searches
• CNN.com/technology looks at alternative niche search engines to supplement Google.